The Farm is located on a rolling field on the Niagara Escarpment that is one of Canada’s most significant landforms and a UNESCO World Biosphere Reserve. The area, a major agriculture and logging centre throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, is now a popular location for second homes owned by residents of the major cities of southwestern Ontario’s “Golden Horseshoe”. The owners of the Farm are one such family.

The Residence is located at the crest of a slope that falls away diagonally across the site from northeast to southwest. The built form of the Residence is inspired by the 19th century farms still visible throughout the Valley, and their vernacular of strong, rectangular forms that hug the landscape. Traditionally, the main house and ancillary buildings – summer kitchen, ice house, poultry and cattle barns – were organized along a central circulation spine linked by covered walkways and sheltering garden spaces. a-A streamlined and reinterpreted these strong geometric forms, rendering them in native stone and wood that evoke the landscape itself. Extensive glazed corridors connect the main programmatic elements of the house, echoing the traditional farmhouse arrangement of walkways and courtyards.